Archive for the ‘Photography’ Category

I’m dying over the photographs J. Bell of J. Bell Photography dropped off yesterday. The colors are gorgeous and I’m so proud of how well my girls did! It was really hot the day we shot and they were troopers and had tons of fun. My heart skips a beat when I see Livy and Avery in these pics.

Copying sister:
I LOVE this pic:
And this one makes me laugh because this what they do at home all the time:
* all photos by J. Bell Photography (he’s so good with kids!)

Avery and Olivia are the most precious gifts I could have ever been given. They inspire me, challenge me, keep me grounded, bring so much happiness, love me unconditionally, and exhaust me every single day. I’m so blessed to have these precious girls in my life! Children open your eyes to things you’ve either never seen before or have forgotten. With Mother’s Day having just past (which I owe a post on as well as Easter and Avery’s 4th birthday), I have been thinking about how becoming a mom has changed my life and all I can feel is exceptionally grateful!

Last weekend one of my new friends, Kari, put together a playdate at a beautiful park here in Austin by the lake and J. Bell Photography came and took pictures of the kids for us. It’s a park I had never been to and is really well hidden and quite a hike to get to but so worth it. We had so much fun playing with friends, balls, bubbles, and doggies!

We didn’t get many pictures of Olivia because she was afraid of the photographer.
Meanwhile, this little princess was hamming it up for him:
Livy isn’t so sure here:

I’m so grateful for my new friends here in Austin. It can really be hard when you move to leave old friends. We don’t get to see our friends from Houston quite as often and that does make me sad. My first few months here was a little lonely but I forced myself to put myself out there to meet other mamas with small children and now our schedules are jam packed. The ladies I’ve met over the past few months here have been wonderful and such a supportive, fun group!

This past weekend was cold and rainy but we had two family Christmas parties which sure did brighten things up. Matt and Dawn had a professional shoot scheduled for this weekend but had to cancel due to weather so they asked me to do their Christmas pictures for them. I was excited to do them! This was my first photo shoot ever for someone other than my own kids. We did it on a very, very windy day while it was drizzling outside because there was no other time to do it. I think they turned out really cute. Of course, Lyla is very easy to shoot!

With Scott traveling so much recently during the week, we have been staying at home quite a bit on the weekends. We really like going to Central Market to find lots of great food for the weekend and Avery loves it! She calls it the park with a store and she never forgets about getting a balloon. Olivia just enjoys coming along and soaking it all in! She doesn’t like balloons though and constantly blinks her eyes when Avery’s balloon comes near her.
Blurry but still love:
Watching her sister climb up the playscape and probably thinking…I can do that!:

On Saturday, Avery’s friend had a birthday party at Gymboree. She talked about going every single day last week. She wasn’t disappointed! She had so much fun 🙂 and Livy did too!

One thing I’ve noticed is that with moving children, I have a hard time getting my pictures in focus with the 50mm though I love it. Do I need to up my aperture or is there something else I need to do?

Last weekend, we dressed the girls alike and took a trip to Whole Foods where they had a really cute pumpkin patch set up. I thought it would make adorable pictures and it would have IF a) it wasn’t so bright b) the girls could actually open their eyes c) the stars would have aligned! We picked the wrong time to go. I thought evening would be great but we should have waited an hour. The sun was going down but there was nothing to block it and it was set up facing that direction. In any case, this is what we ended up with so we are going to attempt again before they take it all down. Olivia loved the cow! Avery thought it would be fun until Scott put her on it and she started screaming. After our failed attempt at pictures, we decided it was time to go get some goodies at Whole Foods! I love cool grocery stores and this Flagship Whole Foods has every grocery store beat (my opinion, of course)! I remember when I first moved to Austin many years ago, it was a very small establishment across the street where Anthropologie now is. Boy has it come a long way! It’s huge and is prepared food heaven…

Really MOM…Do we have to do this?
This is Avery’s fake smile…we resorted to bribery:
Too bright…I’ll smile and close my eyes:
Awww, they were troopers!

In dreamland, I would have one of these to park at my farm and take the kids on hay rides and go joy riding! Since it’s dreamland, my farm would be around Napa.
If there was a place you could walk in and instantly feel “happy,” this is it for me! I can walk in and it washes over me. It’s the simple things 😉 We really enjoy taking the girls on Friday evenings to plan our special weekend dinners (when we are in town).

We received our photos from August. We took them the last week of being in The Woodlands so they are very sentimental to us. They mark a huge step made in our lives!
Doing a twirl:
Livy’s teething so her fingers are always in her mouth 🙂
Not such a great picture of us but Olivia’s face is PRICELESS! She wasn’t a fan of pictures or the grass:
NO LIKEY THE GRASS!:
Tummy Love…I love her little belly:

To say we were worn out after this shoot was an understatement. We did this right smack dab in the middle of the big move week. I literally ran and bought their outfits the hour before the shoot and Scott and I threw some clothes on and met our photographer at the club house.